


Tagetes

by kusudama_akatsuki



Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:20:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27088498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kusudama_akatsuki/pseuds/kusudama_akatsuki
Summary: Itachi mourns the death of a special friend.Seeing the slight widening of Itachi's eyes, Kisame elaborated "You were holding that when I found you. Where'd it come from?""Someone very dear to me," he murmured.
Relationships: Uchiha Itachi/Uchiha Shisui
Comments: 2
Kudos: 27





	Tagetes

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday to everyone's favorite cliff diver

* * *

Tagetes (marigold): grief

* * *

It had been years since Itachi left Konoha, and not a day went by without him thinking of the brother he left behind. Sometimes, there were days he felt his resolve give away. Through the cracks, a smiling face would appear followed by black curls adding to the familiar presence. Those were the days that he felt the most broken and his hope slipping away. He felt that Kisame knew something was wrong despite Itachi’s perfect mask, but he dared not ask. For no matter how impassively he wore his mask, it was always his eyes that gave away his pain.

The pair had just returned to Ame from a reconnaissance mission. Never had Itachi been glad for the rain before; the water droplets easily concealed the uncontrollable tears streaming down his face. Even if it wasn’t raining, he was sure that Kisame wouldn’t ask questions, the swordsman never overstepped his bounds.

Kisame let his teenaged partner lead him back to their headquarters. They wove through the crowds until Itachi came to an abrupt stop. Kisame immediately noticed the dango stall that stood a few metres off to the side where the young man stood stiffly. Taking charge, the feared swordsman promptly asked for three sticks of dango from the vendor and paid the appropriate amount. When he returned to Itachi, he found that his partner hadn’t moved at all. His eyes were so lost in thought that his name had to be repeated twice for him to notice the bag of dango held in front of him.

“Thank you,” Itachi managed to say after realising what was being offered to him.

“You sure you’re alright, Itachi?” Kisame quirked an eyebrow.

“I’m fine,” was the mumbled response that came from Itachi’s dango stuffed mouth.

“We should at least get out of the rain unless you want to get sick again,” Kisame proposed.

“Hn.”

* * *

The rain slowed to a drizzle and Itachi decided now was the best time.

Now alone, he stood at the base of a tree, on the grounds surrounding the Akatsuki headquarters. A small rock was held in one of his cold hands. In the other was the paper bag containing the remaining two dango sticks Kisame bought for him. He gently placed the rock down and nestled it between two large roots. He had spent a short amount of time carefully etching a name into the rock. It had to be perfect; it was his birthday after all.

“I’m sorry I don’t have anything better for you. But you always used to share these with me so I wanted to do the same for you. I meant to buy these myself, but Kisame noticed how distracted I was,” Itachi carefully stuck the two sticks into the soft earth, not wanting to get dirt on them. "Happy Birthday, Shisui."

Itachi walked back a few paces to allow Shisui time to accept his gift. He imagined Shisui crouching down and plucking a stick from the earth.

Shisui now stood up and walked towards Itachi. He held the dango stick as an offering in front of his friend. "I know you said these are for me, but they are your favorite." Itachi slowly opened his mouth to protest, to which Shisui promptly used as an opening and brought the first glutinous dumpling to the former's lips.

"Go on, eat it so I can eat the next one." It was a tradition of theirs. Shisui would buy dango from his missions abroad and Itachi would insist they share instead of the sweets being solely for him. To compromise, Shisui would eat a third of every stick and it was always the second dumpling.

Itachi thoughtfully chewed, letting the sweet soy sauce settle on his tongue. Suddenly he felt a twang of sorrow. Swallowing, he cried out "Do you hate me for what I did?"

Shisui's smile disappeared. "Hey, none of that. It's my birthday and I won't have you all sad and mopey. You can do that on the other three hundred and sixty three days. You can't be sad on your birthday either," he winked.

"But to answer your question," he yanked off the middle dumpling with his teeth and handed the stick to Itachi, "No, can't really say I do. I hate Danzo's conniving ass and myself for trusting him. If anyone should be sorry, it's me," his eyes were downcast and voice low.

"Itachi, don't blame yourself. Danzo didn't give you a choice. And maybe he's right. Even if I did use my Mangekyou, would the peace have lasted? Yoshiro could've revolted. There were a lot of things we don’t know. And rather than focusing on what ifs, I want to focus on your. Whatever your ultimate goal is, don't t let that be your only one."

"One last thing," Shisui pulled something from his pant pocket and proceeded to throw it towards Itachi. "I meant to give that to you after... guess now will have to do."

Itachi easily caught it and suddenly felt Shisui behind him. "Let me put it on."

With the necklace securely fastened, Shisui gently pulled Itachi closer and towards the nearest tree trunk. Itachi had always felt safest in Shisui's arms and today was no different. He felt calm as his hair was gently stroked and closed his eyes.

* * *

Itachi woke up to find himself in a warm bed. Upon sitting up, he saw Kisame standing in the corner.

"I found you collapsed in front of the grave marker you put up. If Kisame had read the name on the rock, he didn't reveal it. "You have a 40° fever," he gestured to the bag of ice Itachi was holding to his forehead. "I got Deidara to leave you a bowl of porridge."

"Kisame, thank you," his gaze shifted to the small table next to the bed. On it was a simple cord necklace with three thick rings. The cord threaded was inside the silver rings instead of through them.

Seeing the slight widening of Itachi's eyes, Kisame elaborated "You were holding that when I found you. Where'd it come from?"

"Someone very dear to me," he murmured.

He didn't fully understand how he could've been holding the necklace if he was wearing it. Looking out the window, he saw a crow perched on a branch. Realising that it was being watched, it gave a loud _caw_ before disappearing as if it were using shunshin. Itachi's lips curved upwards a little at the sight of this.

**Author's Note:**

> School & work sucked the creativity out of me (but thankfully not all of it). I haven't been writing as much as wanted to the past few years. I kept telling myself 'I want to write again' but felt I had chronic writer's block. School was stressful for me and I was at a standstill on how and what to write. I managed to complete two very short snippets that I really don't consider my true writing even though they were for a (canon) rare pair that I love dearly.
> 
> Earlier this year in late spring, my all time favorite fic was updated for the first time in nearly three and a half years. I greedily devoured her chapters and then tragedy struck. She would be discontinuing that fic. I was utterly devastated. I spent a month getting over that and making plans to write to heal, have a creative outlet, and most importantly, write what I want to read.
> 
> I actually wrote the beginning of this fic ages ago and recently found it and continued it. Originally, it was only meant to be Itachi mourning Shisui, but as I was writing, I decided to include the necklace. As for why the necklace is on the table instead of being around Itachi's neck, the scene with Shisui is part supernatural, part hallucinations.


End file.
